unlikely

Forms

1.Not likely; improbable; not to be reasonably expected.
- It is pretty unlikely that you'll win, but I will pray that at least you do well.
- In the highly unlikely event of landing in water, lifejackets are stored under the seat.
- The Saturday evening Cardiff-West Wales mail train is still steam-worked, but a most unlikely locomotive used on May 23 was Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 45250 (5A); it returned on May 25 with a train of steel billets.
2.Not holding out a prospect of success; likely to fail; unpromising.

1.Something or somebody considered unlikely.
- Then the most unlikely of unlikelies happened. We got another phone call. Another woman wanted to give us a baby, a boy, born just that morning. We walked into a hospital, and he was placed into my arms.
- "Here is my every possible phone number, plus a few unlikelies. And I've also put down the numbers of Karin and Wade, in case you've lost them. Karin can come anytime; Wade, up until six in the morning."
- The molecular ion candidates are divided by the testing phase into three categories: rejects, unlikelies, and probables. Differences between each candidate and the prominent peaks in the spectrum are computed.

Uncommon· #2871

From Middle English unlykely, unlikly, unlykly, unlicli.

By surface analysis, un- + likely.